The game requires a lot of quick thinking and out witting your opponent in defeating their castle. The general gameplay is very straight forward:

You and your opponent both have 3 towers, with one of them being your main castle

You are separated by a bridge

Your goal is to destroy the opponent’s castle or tower in 3 minutes

Whoever destroys more towers or the main castle wins

You are handed some basic cards that basically turn into living monsters, buildings or spells on the battle field. Much like Hearthstone, each of these cards have a “mana” cost known as elixir. Some cost more, while others are cheap. You are only allowed to have 8 cards in a deck, but there are currently about 47 cards at the time of this writing.

What I Like About Clash Royale

1) Battles Are Short

The game offers 3-4 minute battles that anyone can find time to have a bit of fun. Whether you are waiting for the bus or just chilling at home, you can enjoy a strategy battle anywhere, as long as you have a good internet connection.

2) Real Time Battles!

You are actually playing with people in real time! That is what makes the game exciting. In Clash of Clans, you are somewhat fighting “AI” since it isn’t real time. In Clash Royale, you actually have to read what your opponent might do. Playing the same strategy doesn’t always work, but can still work in your favor more than 50% of the time. That is enough to get you climbing higher in the arena.

3) Card Counters

Each card has some counters to it and you need to be able to build your deck to handle some of these plays. Tweaking your deck to make sure you can cover weaknesses is vital to your long term success in this PvP oriented game.

Things I Didn’t Enjoy

1) Reward Chests Take Too Long to Open

As you start advancing past the beginner PvP arena, silver and gold chests take too long to open. Silver chests take 3 hours while gold ones take 8 hours. For most casual players, this isn’t too much of a problem. For hardcore players, this will be as they will be “forced” to spend money if they want to speed up the rewards they get.

2) Too Little Reward Space

Currently, there are only 4 available slots for you to hold your chests. Once you win 4 battles, your slots are filled up. More battles won’t give you any more chests and some might see it as a waste to keep on battling.
3) Card Gets Harder to Upgrade Past Level 8

Once you get to the higher tier arena (6+), the cards you get are quite expensive to upgrade and require a lot of resources to do so.

Graphics

The game’s graphics has a very “cute” feel to it. The characters are pretty much the ones you see in Clash of Clans. They are happy fellas. Even skeletons are happy. It makes sense since this game is targeted towards the younger audience. This somewhat brings you back to being a kid again, which is something I appreciate about this game.

If you are someone that wants top notch 3D graphics, you will be disappointed with this.

Strategy: Deck Building

Much of this game revolves around tweaking your deck of cards available to you and upgrading them. A lot of enjoyment comes from crafting a deck that works for you and suits your playstyle. This also explains why people love it. They spend quite a bit of time modifying their decks to find the winning edge.

Conclusion: Give It a Try!

This is the first real time PvP game I have played on a mobile game. I definitely see more real time PvP coming out on mobile games and Clash Royale will remain a staple game for many casual players for years to come.

I highly recommend you check out this mobile game if you play on other platforms such as PC, Xbox or 3DS. It might change your perception of mobile games in general.

Author Bio – Kenny is the owner of OnlineFanatic.com and is fond of writing various gaming topics during his spare time. You are welcome to drop by and say hello or talk about gaming and entertainment.

The Good

Battles Are Short

Real Time Battles!

Card Counters

The Bad

Reward Chests Take Too Long to Open

Too Little Reward Space

Card Gets Harder to Upgrade Past Level 8

Written by: Guest Author

About the Author: Caroline is a freelance blogger and writer who is also a video game enthusiast. She loves kicking back and bathing in nostalgia! She hopes that you found something to look back on yourself among the titles listed above.